Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-151354 relates to a banknote depositing/dispensing machine used, for example, in financial institutions, and discloses performing a reconciliation process in which an inventory amount of a storage unit is checked by counting banknotes when all the banknotes stored in a storage unit and fed from the storage unit are temporarily stored in another storage unit, or when the banknotes are restored in the original storage unit from the another storage unit. As mentioned in the above publication, such a reconciliation process enables the inventory amount of the storage unit to be checked against transaction data, such as depositing and dispensing money.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-72812 relates to a money depositing/dispensing device, such as a banknote change machine and a coin change machine connected to a POS register, and discloses performing a money returning process when an error occurs in a depositing process or a dispensing process. The returning process is a process conducted after the recovery of the depositing/dispensing machine, which is temporarily stopped after the occurrence of an error and recovered by an operator by removing money remaining in the device. In the returning process, the operator places money to be processed in the returning process, including the removed money, in an inlet, and the depositing/dispensing machine stores the placed money, while counting the money. The depositing/dispensing machine described in this publication controls first inventory amount data indicating an inventory amount of the money in the device, including money in a storage unit, and second inventory amount data indicating an inventory amount of money in the storage unit. In the returning process, only the second inventory amount data is updated based on the result of counting the money placed in the inlet until the first inventory amount data and the second inventory amount data match. After the first inventory amount data and the second inventory amount data match, both of the first and second inventory amount data are updated based on the result of counting the money placed in the inlet. This is how the depositing/dispensing device avoids miscalculation.
However, even if a returning process is necessary because an error, such as a banknote jam, has occurred in the depositing process or the dispensing process and the process is therefore stopped, as in the depositing/dispensing device of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-72812, it might happen that the banknote cannot be returned in the device because it is torn. In such a case, a substitutive banknote is prepared in place of the torn banknote, and the substitutive banknote is stored in the storage unit by the returning process, in conventional techniques. However, the error recovery of the depositing/dispensing device may be delayed unless the substitutive banknote is immediately prepared. When the depositing/dispensing device is located at the teller counters in financial institutions, for example, the delay in error recovery may cause delay in the teller's business.
This problem is caused by a difference between an inventory amount in device managed by the depositing/dispensing device and an actual inventory amount of the banknotes present in the device, e.g., a storage unit. In the conventional depositing/dispensing devices, the difference between these inventory amounts has to be eliminated by storing the banknotes in a storage unit. However, if it is possible to allow the difference between these inventory amounts, while achieving accurate management of the inventory amount in the depositing/dispensing device, an error, if it occurs, may be recovered more rapidly.
According to the techniques disclosed herein, a money depositing/dispensing device which performs a money depositing process and a money dispensing process can accurately manage an inventory amount in device, while allowing the difference between the inventory amount in device and an actual inventory amount.